Hunters: Light Pointe
by BlazeorFade
Summary: Sam, Dean and Jack go to California for a gig. Sam copes with the impending anniversary of Jessica's death. Third in the Hunters Series. RR, I live for it.
1. Chapter 1

**Title" Hunters: Light Pointe**

**Author: BlazeorFade**

**Rating: T**

**Summary: Sam, Dean and Jack head to California for a gig and Sam deals with the impending one year anniversary of Jessica's death. **

**Disclaimer: Sadly I still own nothing except the images in my head, dirty or otherwise. **

**Enjoy the story, reviews are like chocolate or knives, can't have too much of any of them.**

Sam unlocked the door to his apartment and trudged inside tiredly. His body was sore in ways it hadn't been in the four years since he left home and hunting behind. He called for Jess as he walked through the darkened house. Sam spotted a plate of cookies on the table with a note form his girlfriend. He took one with a smile and walked to his bedroom, it was good to be home. He heard a bath running, thought about seeing if Jess wanted some company but the second he sat on the soft mattress he collapsed backward in exhaustion.

Sam smiled at nothing and felt himself start to drift off, making a mental note to call his brother when he woke up.

Something warm dripping onto his forehead brought him out of his half asleep state. He brought his hand to his forehead feeling more drops of whatever it was hit him. Sam cracked open his eyes in confusion and rubbed his hands over the dark sticky substance, the half second it took him to register it as blood would be the longest of his life. Sam's gaze shot upward to his worst nightmare.

"No!" He screamed convulsing as he saw Jessica, His Jess pinned to the ceiling grotesquely. He reached up calling her name as she burst into flame. He barely felt the hand on his arm pulling him forcefully off the bed.

All he saw was the blood, fire and the accusation in her beautiful blue eyes. You could have saved me, they mocked cruelly.

Sam woke with a start, shutting his eyes against the too bright sun filtering through the car window. When the spots dotting his vision faded he cracked his eyes open slowly till they adjusted to the morning sun. He looked around to find himself alone in the front seat of the car, parked at a pump in front of a gas station. Someone's humming made him look out the back windshield to see Jack pumping the gas with one hand tapping out a tune to go along with her humming. Dean was nowhere in sight.

Sam shook his head trying to calm his breathing, going through the motions of talking himself down from the nightmare. He let the panic wash over him, shutting out all thought till it subsided. It was a constant in his life, he'd wake up from the nightmares and talk himself back to the present; reminding himself it had already happened, even channeling his brother when it was too much telling him that it wasn't his fault. Sam opened his eyes and saw his brother leaving the gas station with a bag in one hand and a tray holding three coffees in the other. Sam shot out of the car before he could think and walked rapidly to his brother.

"Mornin Sammy." Dean greeted. Sam grabbed him by the arm and pulled him along ignoring the sounds of protest Dean made.

"What's wrong Sam?" Dean asked as Sam led him around the side of the gas station. He looked Sam over, noting the sheen of sweat over his face even though it wasn't all that hot and fro once Sam wasn't wearing one of those hoodies he loved so much. Dean let himself be led around the building with growing concern for the younger man. Finally when they were out of sight Sam let him go and turned his back on Dean who lowered the bag and coffee to the ground and watched his brother clench and unclench his fists, his breathing becoming erratic. Dean shook his head sadly, another damn nightmare.

"Sam." Dean said inquiringly. He waited patiently for Sam to say something. It wasn't a premonition or he wouldn't have pulled Dean back there away from prying eyes, meaning this was personal.

"Tell me again Dean." Sam said in a small voice that reminded Dean of when he was little and afraid of the thing in closet.

"Its not your fault. It was never your fault." Dean said the words he knew by heart and had been trying for over a year to convince Sam of. It had become another routine for survival. Sam woke screaming for his love and Dean reminded him it wasn't his fault she was gone, when Sam couldn't convince himself of this fact.

"I wasn't dreaming about it for awhile. I wasn't reliving that night all the time and now its every other night. Its like I'm there again and I can't get out." Sam said with grief choke hoarseness.

"Sam-" Dean hesitated. He didn't really think Sam needed to be reminded it was almost that time of year. They were only a week away from Halloween and a little longer from t he anniversary of Jessica's death.

"I know. I know." Sam said rubbing the bridge of his nose trying to blink back the tears filling his eyes. He thought he'd come so far since then, when his grief threatened to bury him in the beginning though he repressed it as much as he could. But the closer it got the larger the hole in his chest seemed to grow.

Dean was watching him dreading what he had to say next. Sam hinted in the past few days that he wanted to be as far form California as humanly possible during That Time, but dad called while Sam was sleeping and told Dean to get to the West Coast. A routine haunting, it looked like, but the poltergeist was getting more and more violent so they had to get their asses over there and take care of it.

"Sam we got a gig." Dean said. Sam turned to him with red rimmed eyes and Dean considered calling their father back and saying it was a no go.

"Where?" Sam asked with dread like he already knew what Dean was going to say.

"Lighthouse at a place called Pigeon Pointe." Dean said. Sam hung his head, he knew the place, he'd even been there once, on a beach trip with some friends.

"I can call dad, tell him we found something more important." Dean said. Sam swallowed and shook his head. He walked past Dean to find the men's room.

Dean ran a weary hand over his face letting himself feel the bite of anger on his brother's behalf. He felt sure John hadn't forgotten what time of year it getting to, but why would he send them there if he remembered. Dean sure as hell remembered how far from Kansas dad always made sure to be when it getting towards the anniversary of the night mom died. And why the hell do they call it an anniversary anyway? Dean thought scowling. There wasn't anything to celebrate.

He let himself sink into that old anger till he felt he could compose himself enough to head back the car. Dean picked up their breakfast and walked around to the pumps. Jack was sprawled across the trunk with her eyes closed, looking like the picture of blissful unawareness as a couple of younger guys in an SUV watched her. But Dean saw the slight flick upward as he approached and knew that the hand that was in her pocket was tracing the lines of a throwing knife lazily. She, like him and Sam, was anything but unaware. He almost laughed when one of the college aged boys who'd been about to approach her stopped hesitantly in his tacks when Dean put the coffee down on the hood next to Jack.

She opened one eye, humor sparkling in it and sat up stretching like a cat. The guy eyed Dean warily and decided to go back to his buddy.

"Scaring away my fun." Jack pretended to pout. She slid off the car and claimed one of the cups of black coffee.

"Gas tanks full. Where's Sam?" Jack asked.

"Right here." Sam said coming up on them. Dean handed him a cup of coffee without comment. If Jack saw the subtle color around his eyes that indicated his small burst of emotion, she didn't say anything, But then if she did notice she wouldn't say anything either, that wasn't their way. Instead she patted him on the shoulder, her way of saying something but he didn't really know what and walked around to climb in the back seat.

"You know it wouldn't kill ya to get Starbucks every now and then." Jack said as they pulled away from the station, breaking the heavy silence.

"A. We can't afford five bucks for one cup of coffee and B. No way in hell am I drinking some frou frou half caf mocha what the hell ever drink." Dean told her.

"Too manly for a decent cup of coffee Dean?" Jack purred.

"Damn straight." Dean said smirking.

"I'll bet Sam is secure enough to drink something that doesn't taste like street tar in liquid form." She teased though she was guzzling down her own cup of street tar.

"Sam is a girl." Dean replied simply. Sam felt his lips twitch upward, fighting a smile.

"So am I, and I need decent coffee." Jack argued. "You see, unlike you Dean I'm sure enough of my innate badassness-" Sam let out a laugh at that, she grinned at him in the rearview mirror. "To march into Starbucks and order an extra large Vanilla Frappe."

"I think its called Venti." Sam pointed out.

"Okay I'll drink the coffee but there's no way in hell I'm using those names for the sizes." Jack said frowning. Sam laughed for the first time in a few days and saw a look cross between his brother and friend.

Sam savored the temporary levity, sipping at his own cup. It wouldn't last, every mile took him closer and closer to where he really didn't want to be.

TBC……….

AN: So begins another tale in the Hunters 'verse. Did you miss me in the oh I don't know half hour since I last posted :D. Stay tuned for Sam Angst, ghosts and the continuing search for decent coffee on the road with no cash.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: You know I own nothing, I'd brag if I did. All info about Pigeon Pointe I got from Dude, they know everything don't they?**

* * *

"No way. No fucking way." Dean said staring a hole into Jack's head.

"Hey you were the one that said we're broke, so until we get cash its the car or this." Jack said folding her arms over her chest.

"Sam, can you help me out here? Tell this woman we are not staying at a damn hostel on the property of the lighthouse." Dean said turning to where his brother was sitting on the hood of the car. They were parked in front of a diner on their way inside to order the cheapest thing on the menu when Jack decide to inform them she'd gotten a deal on rooms for them at a hostel that used to be the Light keepers house at Pigeon Pointe.

"Sam. Hello?" Dean tried waving his hand in front of his face but Sam wasn't listening to the argument.

"Dean." Jack grabbed hold of his arm and turned him to face her. "The place is empty, no one wants to stay there right now, so we'll have no one but staff to deal with and we'll be close to the light house, its a win-win situation."

"I don't wanna." Dean protested. He mentally tallied up how much money the three of them had, twenty three dollars and eighty eight cents, and no new credit cards for at least a week.

"This is about that movie isn't it?" Jack narrowed her eyes at him.

"No." Dean denied stubbornly. No way in hell was he admitting that some damn horror movie had freaked him out.

Sam, for his part, was too zoned out to care where they stayed. He was so busy avoiding thoughts of Jess and how much he didn't want to be in the tri-state area that he missed Jack's announcement and the subsequent taunting she gave Dean over being freaked out by a movie.

"It didn't even take place in America, you wimp." Jack said.

"I told you its not the movie. What if other guests come, those places aren't exactly private." Dean retorted.

"I guess its a good thing I booked us as a family so we'd get some privacy. Besides this is free and beggars, that's us, can't be choosers." Jack said sensing a victory when she used the 'F' word, in a good context for once too.

"How'd you swing that?" Dean asked.

"Front desk man believes the stories even of the manager doesn't and he thinks paranormal investigators would be a good thing." Jack said slyly.

"You told who we were paranormal investigators?" Sam piped up finally zoning into their conversation.

"Now you speak up." Dean said sarcastically.

"He heard the million dollar word, free." Jack said.

"Catch me up here." Sam told them.

"Jack got us free board at the now empty Hostel on the property at the light house." Dean explained with a roll of his eyes.

"Good we can't afford any place anyway and the sooner we get done there the sooner we can leave." Sam said agreeing with Jack.

"But he melted her face with a blow torch." Dean protested.

"What?" Sam asked in confusion, he looked at Jack for answers but she was trying to hard not to laugh.

"I know Dean, he's a very bad man." Jack placated him as she put her arm over his shoulder and led him inside the diner.

"But the good guy shot him, so he won't be popping out of the closet at Pigeon Pointe."

"Shut up." Dean pouted.

Sam followed behind them shaking his head.

* * *

The small road side diner was one of the few places around the part of state park where their gig was. It was already decorated for Halloween, all orange streamers and paper ghost cut outs. Sam felt the urge to pull the orange pumpkin decoration hanging form the ceiling and throw it, but they might misconstrue that as hostility and throw the three of them out.

"Ah, cheap food." Jack said sliding into a booth next to Dean across from Sam. He stretched out his legs across the seat nearly tripping an unfortunate waitress holding a tray.

"So what do we know so far?" Sam asked.

"A couple months ago guests started saying they saw someone walking around the light house late at night. An apparition that disappeared when they got too close, you know the drill." Dena said. He stopped to order coffee for them and burgers.

"Anywho," He continued when they were alone again. "People keep seeing this and the place gets some extra attention for it till a couple weeks ago a guy climbs to the top of the place and jumps off."

"Wasn't the door locked?" Jack asked frowning.

"Yeah and get this, they say the thing wasn't touched." Dean told them.

"So either he's Curious George or something let him in?" Jack asked.

"But how does a ghost let someone into a locked building?" Sam wondered skeptically. "Are you sure this is our kind of thing?"

"Hey dad was pretty damn sure. He said we needed to get here so here we are." Dean said. The waitress came back with their order.

"So this desk clerk guy gonna let us poke around the light house?" Dean asked biting into his burger.

"Yup, he said he was going to quit his job if this kept up." Jack answered. She looked critically at her burger. It seemed to small to her almost empty stomach.

"She slid a sideways glance at the nearly empty diner. Two other guys and neither of them looked to be good marks. Probably didn't have much more in their pockets than she did.

"Eat your food and stop sizing up people." Sam said disapprovingly.

"We are broke guys. And the best bars to hustle at are in Santa Cruz and San Fran." Jack said dropping to a low whisper.

"We don't steal unless its an emergency." Sam said.

"Sammy boy, your morality is going to rub off on me if I'm not careful and then I'll have to kill you." Jack said with a martyred sigh. She bit into her sandwich, devouring it in three bites.

"You poor thing." Sam rolled his eyes.

The rest of their lunch passed in silence with Dean looking through their father's journal and Jack stealing fries from his plate when he wasn't looking.

Sam finished eating and leaned his head back against the cheep vinyl seat of the booth. He was trying not to close his eyes, having a contest to see how long he could last through the dry pain that burned after a minute or two of not blinking. Every time he closed his eyes he saw little bits and pieces of his dream played out again and again. Never the whole picture, but small details, like where he three his house keys when he first stepped inside. The cookie falling to the ground when he opened his eyes to that haunting image on the ceiling. He pressed his thumbs into his eyes getting them to tear up without closing them so he could alleviate the dryness without blinking. The pain this caused blocked out his thoughts for another second or so.

"What's her name?" Jack asked out of the blue. Sam looked up to see her staring out the window with mild curiosity.

"What the waitress, I think it was Claire or something." Sam said grasping at the tiniest distraction from his masochistic game.

"No, the car." Jack said. He thought she was being sarcastic when he followed her eye line to see that she was indeed staring at the Impala.

"The car? The car doesn't have a name." Sam said slowly.

"Yeah she does. Dean, what is your car's name?" Jack said poking Dean to get his attention.

"What was your motorcycle's name?" Dean asked with a smirk.

"Alice." Jack answered proudly.

"You named your bike?" Sam asked, not feeling very surprised by this fact.

"Hey, Alice was part of the family. Don't speak ill of the dead Sam." Jack warned him with a smile tugging at her lips.

"Tell me you didn't name your car Dean." Sam said to his brother. Dean looked at Sam and smiled mysteriously before draining is cup of coffee.

"We should get going." Dean said standing up waving Jack out of the booth ahead of him.

"What's that look? Now you gotta tell us what her name is." Jack said smiling in anticipation of a joke. Dean threw some dollar bills on the table top. He shook his head and walked out of the restaurant ahead of the other two.

"What was that about?" Jack asked Sam.

"Don't know, maybe you managed one up him in automotive insanity." Sam teased. Jack punched him in the shoulder and walked past him. Sam noticed her favoring her right leg on the way out and lengthened his stride to catch up with her out the door.

"Jack what's wrong with your leg?" Sam asked in concern. It was her bad leg, the one they'd had to operate on when she had her 'accident'. The second worst of her injuries.

"Its nothing." Jack said shrugging. She started to walk away when he stepped in front of her.

"Jack." Sam said quietly.

Jack looked up and was caught by Sam's Patented Puppy Dog Look. She sighed and tried to step around him ignoring the dull ache in her leg.

"If you're hurt you shouldn't be hunting. We should have taken some more time for you to recover." Sam said the last half to himself. He still felt responsible for Jack.

"Its just giving me some trouble today, Sam. And we couldn't take more time. Virgin eater in Illinois, remember?" Jack said. She gave him a lopsided smile of reassurance.

The doctors told them she had to take it easy after getting her cast off and not even a week later she was ducking and dodging evil spirits. Not ideal for recuperating. She didn't want to admit her leg had been bothering her ever since then. Her pride wouldn't let her admit that a relatively easy fight was staying with her weeks later.

"Sam, I'll take some painkillers and rest up at the hostel." Jack promised when he wouldn't move out of her way.

"Let me look at it." Sam said.

"No." Jack said startling him with how serious her tone got. Her dark eyes froze over, her jaw setting mulishly.

"Hey, what's taking so long?" Dean called from the car, honking the horn at them.

"Sam I'll be okay." Jack said softening her tone a little.

"You gonna tell Dean?" Sam asked.

"He's not my keeper and neither are you." Jack replied. She looked up into Sam's green eyes defiantly, he stared back unimpressed.

"When we get to the hostel I'm looking at your leg and you're going to take it easy." Sam said sternly before turning away from her, heading to the car. Dean stopped honking when Sam opened the passenger side door and sat down.

"What's wrong?" Dean asked when Jack joined them in the backseat.

"Nothing." Sam said shaking his head nonchalantly. He caught a brief grateful look on Jack's face in the rear view mirror but he couldn't be sure, it was gone so fast, replaced by a look of indifference. Dean looked between them but got nothing from their expressions except that they obviously weren't agreeing on something.

"Whatever." Dean sighed putting the car in gear, backing out. He popped in his Aerosmith tape and cranked the volume up too loud for conversation.

Sam kept a covert eye on Jack watching her slip two of their ill gotten pain killers into her mouth when she thought neither of them was looking. He let out a quiet sigh and realized that while he was arguing with Jack he'd forgotten to feel like shit. Yeah, he thought, nothing like worrying about your friend's busted leg to keep you from thinking about your dead girlfriend. He clenched his teeth hard enough to hurt and started the game over again, this time keeping an eye on Jack every time she shifted to make her old injury more confotrable.

* * *

"Its pretty." Jack let the words slip out before she could stop herself, she knew she shouldn't have taken two Vicodin, her head was starting to feel loopy.

"Yeah, I guess." Dean said looking at her oddly.

"Lets get inside." Jack said grabbing her pack from the backseat. She made sure not to limp at all this time when she walked. Partly to spite Sam and partly so Dean wouldn't see it and she wound up having two mother hens to deal with.

The brothers followed Jack into the office. She plastered a smile on her face and walked up to the desk clerk, Rodney, the nametag said.

"Hi I'm Jack Carr, we spoke on the phone." She said. The young man, no more than twenty one stared at the trio for a second before jumping up in recognition.

"Oh the, uh Paranormal Investigators. Yeah I remember." He said standing up and coming around the desk to greet them. He was short fro a man, 5'9" with sun bleached hair and watery blue eyes. His casual polo shirt had the Light house's name on it with a ketchup stain next to it.

"Sam." Sam introduced himself shaking the guy's hand.

"Dean." Dean said keeping his hands in his pockets. Rodney dropped his hand awkwardly.

"Um, would you like to look at the light house right now? There's no one really around at all…" Rodney asked eagerly trailing off at the end.

"No thanks, its been a long trip. We were hoping to take a load off first, Rodney." Dean said flashing him a charming smile.

"Of course, here let me show you to your bunks. Do you need any help with your things?" He asked reaching for the duffel bag Jack was holding.

"No." She said simply following it up by an innocent smile when his own smile faltered a bit.

"Ookay." He said biting his bottom lip. "Follow me."

They followed him to their bunks dodging questions about their job. Rodney was proving to be difficult to get rid of till Dean put an arm around him pulled him aside saying something too low for Jack or Sam to hear. He left quickly after that.

"What did you say to that poor kid?" Jack asked in amusement.

"I promised him your phone number if he left us alone." Dean replied flippantly.

"Really? Cause the way he was looking at you I'd have thought he'd prefer yours." Jack shot back. She slung her bag onto one of the beds, claiming it as hers. There were four beds in the room and a bathroom out in the hall. Jack tried not to feel anxious about sharing a room, she rationalized that she hadn't awoken to singed blankets or a boiling hot room in weeks. But her power was too volatile to lower her guard completely.

"Shower." Dean said grabbing some clothes from his pack, cracking his neck to get some circulation back into it.

"Okay let me look at it." Sam said as the door shut behind his brother. He moved to sit on the edge of the bed Jack was sitting up on.

"I told you I'm fine." Jack said.

"Like hell. Let me see or I'll tell Dean and he'll hold you down while I take a look." Sam threatened.

"Sounds like fun, got any handcuffs? I'm a sucker for those." Jack said with a shit eating smirk.

"Haha." Sam said dryly reaching for her right leg. She squirmed out of the way but he caught her leg easily, applying a little pressure so she couldn't pull away without hurting herself.

Jack felt a moment' anger and lashed out verbally if not physically.

"Leave me alone. Find something else to distract you from your damn self pity parade." She said. Sam froze and his eyes hardened so much Jack flinched. She felt a pang of guilt, wishing she'd kept her damn mouth shut.

"Fine." Sam said through clenched teeth. He pushed her leg away and got up to cross the room to another bed.

Dean let himself admit that this might not have been a bad idea after all when he felt the nice hot spray of the shower. Not that he'd ever admit it to Jackie Girl. He thought back to their earlier conversation at the diner. Smiling Dean started to hum a Metallica song, working shampoo through his hair. He had a name for his baby, but he'd never told it to anyone before, not Sam, not even his father.

After he rinsed off and pried himself from his beloved shower head he headed back to room, instantly wanting to turn around and go back to the shower. He could have cut the tension in the room with a knife. Wonderful, he thought, just what we need.

"What happened in the ten minutes I was gone?" Dean asked annoyed. He looked from person to person and neither would meet his eyes.

"Guess I'm talking to myself here." Dean said.

"Its nothing Dean." Sam said. He rose from his bed and grabbed his bag, heading out the door to the shower.

"Jack what's goin on?" Dean demanded. Jack avoided his gaze and shrugged lazily. He wasn't fooled for a second.

"You and Sammy have a fight?" Dean persisted.

"Just something stupid, it'll be fine." Jack said calmly.

"Yeah, you want to know how many stupid arguments nearly got us killed on a hunt?" Dean said.

"I'm not going to not watch you guy's backs because of a dumb tiff." Jack said defensively.

"Didn't say you would." Dean said. "But poltergeists can use the smallest doubt or disagreement against you. To turn you against the people around you."

"I've been dealing with this stuff almost as long you have Dean." Jack reminded him.

"Yeah, well you don't know what these things can make you feel or do until you've experienced it first hand." Dean said.

"How do you know I have-"

"Because that wouldn't have been the conclusion you jumped to if you knew." Dean cut her off. He walked across to the bed next to Sam's. "I suggest you two bury whatever shit you just had it out over."

"Oh and Jack." Dean said turning back around to smirk at her. "Don't ever use the word tiff again. Its just…wrong."

"Go to hell." Jack said laughing. She stretched out on her bed and resigned herself to the fact that she'd have to apologize to Sam and she hated apologizing.

* * *

Sam washed himself mechanically taking his time less out of wanting to stay under the warm water and more because he didn't want to go back to the room and bite Jack's head off. Though it was tempting. Self pity, he thought bitterly snorting out loud. A small part of him was whispering that Jack didn't know what he was going through, she had no clue it was only a few days away from That Day. But he ignored the reason she didn't understand and focused on her not knowing what the hell he was thinking or feeling and not having any right to talk shit to him for wanting to help her out.

**TBC……..**

**AN: Tension, tension, tension. When I was first imagining this story line that whole argument wasn't in this, it was going to go in a later installment. But I guess they need to have it out a little. No worries, my heroes won't fight for long. More angst to come as Sam starts taking out his frustrations on everyone around him. Poor puppy, he needs a hug. Thanks for reading and as always for reviewing.**

**BTW, the movie their referring to in this is Hostel, I just couldn't resist making Dean freak out about staying at an actual hostel.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I own my laptop and that's all**

**AN: I realized after posting the last chapter that I had written Shower Angst. Lol I guess it was my pervy subconscious at work again. On with the show…..**

* * *

"When exactly did you people start claiming to see the ghost?" Dean asked Rodney at breakfast the next day. Sam and Jack sat on opposite sides of table with Dean in between trying to ignore the dark looks being thrown back and forth.

"Um a few months ago, our guests started saying they saw a girl." Rodney answered.

"In here too, or just in the light house itself?" Jack asked with her mouth full. They had the dining area to themselves and much to Jack's delight Rodney had comped their meals. She was working on her third plate of pancakes.

"Both and sometimes outside between the two." Rodney said looking nervous about speaking about the haunting. "They always said the same thing. That a girl would appear and disappear. She never hurt anyone before now." Sam glanced at Dean, they'd gone over the place before breakfast and found nothing in the hostel.

"We even got more business out of it, you know ghost buffs and stuff." He continued nodding along with his own words.

"Up till the man died?" Sam asked putting his two cents in.

"Yeah, I knew him too. He was a friend of a friend form school. Name was George Mann." Rodney said.

"After he was found dead, a rumor went around that it was our ghost girl. Then things started happening." He paused to take a drink form his coffee cup.

"What kinds of things?" Dean asked.

"Things breaking, something approaching people and scaring them, it attacked one of the tourists. Then people stopped coming." Rodney stopped, looking down at his clasped hands.

"Did you see it?" Sam asked.

"I saw something a few days before you guys came here. Some dark outline in the lighthouse." Rodney shrugged, not meeting their eyes. "It scared me."

"Did the new occurrences, the violent ones. Did they happen in both places too?" Jack asked.

"No just the lighthouse." Rodney answered.

"Okay," Dean got to his feet. "We want to look around the lighthouse now."

"Alright." Rodney smiled accommodatingly. He led the three out the doors to where the lighthouse stood, with a giant padlock on its door.

"Its been locked up since then and it was locked up the night George died too. I don't know how he could have gotten inside." Rodney was standing a few feet from the door as Jack looked the lock over critically. He shifted his weight nervously, not wanting to get close to the building.

"You got a key? We can let ourselves in." Sam said putting the guy out if his misery by giving him an out to leave. Rodney sagged with relief and handed him the key ring, indicating t he right key before practically running back inside.

"It hasn't been picked. No scratches around the key hole." Jack told them. Sam nodded curtly and took the lock in his hand unlocking it. Dean gave Jack a significant look over Sam's shoulder but she just shrugged and walked through the door after Sam.

Her eyes immediately zoomed in on the floor underneath the window on the ground level. A burnt out match was laying on the floor. She grinned and picked it up looking it over.

"What?" Dean asked looking at the match frowning.

"Its small and old….." Jack said mostly to herself.

"Okay?" Dean said expectantly waiting for an explanation.

"I might be able to get an image of whoever struck it, but its small so don't expect miracles." Jack said. She bit her bottom lip and closed her eyes concentrating the faint residue of fire on the match.

The image, quick and gone as fast as the small blaze itself was, danced before her vision. She grasped onto it with her mind trying to memorize the details before it was gone. A man, in his early twenties with light brown hair appeared briefly lighting a match and putting it to his ciggerate. An open window behind him. The man grinned to himself before shaking the flame out and the scene was over.

Jack smiled wryly and opened her eyes. She turned around and opened the window easily. It had no locks and she could see faint scrapes on the sill. She looked over her shoulder with one eyebrow cocked.

"So, no ghost that can pick locks, but an unlocked window." Dean said rolling his eyes.

Sam was relieved. He was sure that this wasn't t here kind of thing now. It must have been some freak accident and a bunch of weird coincidences. And as soon as Dean saw this too, they'd be able to leave and he wouldn't find himself looking towards the direction he'd have to drive in to get to Paolo Alto and then Jess's gravesite.

"Well that tells that A. Rodney's an idiot for not noticing this and B. This might just be a guy who had an accident." Jack said closing the window. She dropped the match to the ground.

"Accident? The police ruled it a suicide." Dean told her.

"Man was grinning like a fool when he lit up and he was probably drunk." Jack said.

"Still doesn't explain people seeing a girl appear and disappear here. And the latest sightings." Dean said. Dean took out his Emf.

"I'll check this level for cold spots and catch up with you guys. It'll be quicker that way." Jack suggested.

"Alright. Sammy come on." Dean agreed. He took to the stairs slowly going over everything.

Jack made quick work with the temperature detector in the small space. She didn't expect to find anything there and didn't. She just wanted to be alone to take the stairs slowly favoring her bad leg again.

"Still being stubborn?" Sam startled her leaning over the railing. He smiled a little too smugly.

"Your gonna make it really hard to apologize to you aren't you?" Jack asked making her way up to where he was. She took a seat on the landing.

"Apologize?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Yes and I don't do that very often so you better shut up and let me get it out." Jack said. Sam's lips twitched upward and he took a seat next to her on the step. Jack studied him in silence cocking her head to the side.

"Damn." She said with a bolt of realization. She should've recognized what was going on with her.

"Is that your idea of an apology?" Sam asked.

"No." Jack said. She saw the old pain and weariness in his expression and did the math of mourning. She knew that look from seeing it in the mirror every year around April, when she was forced to remember that it was another year without a loved one. Jack looked away from Sam and cleared her throat stalling for time.

"When I'm backed into a corner in a fight, I was taught to find the soft spot and go in for the kill." Jack said, as always terrible at saying what needed to be said to make things okay. She wasn't looking at Sam but she could feel his confusion.

"Sometimes it comes through at other times too." Jack said knowing the explanation was crappy. She looked up hesitantly and was surprised to see a glimmer of understanding. Sam thought about this and the logic few people would understand and nodded silently. He got to his feet without a word and extended his hand to help Jack up.

"We cool then?" She asked looking at his outstretched hand.

"Yeah." Sam said offering a small smile to her. He added the odd explanation to his dictionary of Jack-ism for future reference. His Dean dictionary was useful for cross referencing. Jack took his hand and let him help her to her feet.

"You going to tell me why you don't want anyone checking out your leg?" Sam asked in a low voice as they caught up with Dean at the top of the lighthouse, where the giant bulb was housed. So far it was a no go.

"Nope." Jack said tensely.

"About time you showed up." Dean complained with a faux scowl.

"Dean, I don't think we're going to find anything." Sam said as he started to scan one side of the room, while Dean took the side looking outward toward the ocean. Jack took the area around the light.

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth he picked something up, a cold spot on the glass in an otherwise warm, almost hot, room. Then Dean's Emf reacted. Dean gave Sam his _I told you so_ look.

"I got something here." Jack said making it a trifecta of Sam being proven wrong.

"I picked it up with the U.V." Jack said from behind the light in an area that the mid morning sun didn't touch.

Sam and Dean came around to see what she picked up. Sure enough, the dim outline of a handprint was shining under the U.V. light she held.

'Damn.' Sam thought clenching his fists.

"We should go see the records of deaths at or near this place." Dean said. "Must be something recent if there's no record of sightings before a few months back."

"Or maybe some jackass kids snuck in here and tried working some mojo they didn't know anything about and called someone here." Jack said.

"Wonderful, if that's it we might not find whoever the ghost is to burn its bones." Sam said bitterly.

"If that's the case, we'll purify the place like we did at our house." Dean told him.

"Whatever." Sam said starting for the stairs.

"This is close to when she died isn't it?" Jack whispered so her voice wouldn't carry.

Dean looked startled, he hadn't been aware of Sam telling her about Jessica.

"Yeah in about a week." Dean said. "We're close to where she was buried, only a few miles."

"You guys coming?" Sam called irritably from downstairs.

Dean made it down the stairs first with Jack lagging behind.

Dean and Sam were outside deciding what the next course of action should be when jack rejoined them.

"Sam you should stay here and ask Rodney about pranks the local kids might have played here, see if he noticed anything. I'll go see if any recent deaths occurred close by." Dean was saying.

"And Jack can check out the history of the place." Dean finished.

"You really think that a guy who doesn't notice an open window anyone can sneak into is going to know anything?" Sam asked disdainfully.

"Sam-" Dean started exasperated.

"Or do you think I'm too distracted to do any real work?" Sam demanded. He glared at Dean.

"I didn't say that, Sammy." Dean said defensively.

"I'll trade with you." Jack spoke up. Sam's gaze flicked to her, to her leg and he nodded.

"Fine." Sam said. Dean caught the look and eyed them suspiciously. Jack gave him an innocent look that he wasn't buying.

"There some reason for that?" Dean asked calmly not liking being kept out of the loop.

"The food." Jack said. She sashayed away from the men before Dean could grill her.

**TBC……….**

**AN: A better chapter(i.e. longer) in a couple days when I'm not so blah. Thank you for all the pretty, pretty reviews, they make the crappy weather here seem not so crappy. Later folks.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I wish I could say the boys were mine but as the philosopher Jagger once said "You can't always get what you want."**

Sam was supposed to be looking up the historical records for Pigeon Pointe, trying to find out about the former keepers. He wasn't supposed to be on a bus heading towards Paolo Alto. He wasn't supposed to be grasping the bus seat so hard he felt the plastic begin to rip. And he certainly wasn't supposed to be talking himself up towards being able to go into the cemetery for the first time since leaving Stanford.

But with a hat pulled low over his head and a pair of dark sunglasses on, so that no one who might recognize him would, he was doing all those things. Sam had set out to do the task he traded Jack for but somehow he five minutes into reading through the dull, old records he found himself thinking about Jess and the familiar pang of loss and pain was accompanied by a sort of defiance. He was rebelling against himself, against the nagging panic that grew the closer he got to her grave.

'No pain. No pain. You can make it through this.' He thought, modifying the mantra he said himself before falling asleep in a fruitless attempt at calming himself.

He almost had himself convinced when the bus stopped and he saw that he was only a few blocks away from he and Jess's old apartment. Panic sliced through him and Sam started to hyperventilate. A spike of pain ripped through his head and he leaned forward with a cry of agony and surprise. _Crack._ Sam looked up in bewilderment and saw a small line of cracks spider webbing across the window of seat. His mouth dropped open. The bus started moving again without Sam noticing. Finally the whirling of the scenery and the pain splintering through his skull brought Sam back to reality with his stomach lurching. He leaned forward pressing the heels of his palms into his eyes, mumbling incoherently. He was well aware that people were starting to edge away from him but he didn't care. The next time the bus stopped Sam stood up on legs made of rubber and stumbled off the bus, headless of where he was let off.

'Dean.' He thought pulling out his phone. Dean would come and pick him up and it would be alright. They'd get the gig done and leave and that would be that.

"Dean, I need you to come pick me up." Sam said as soon as his brother answered the phone.

"Sam, where are you? What's wrong?" Dean asked sharply.

Sam looked around him and gave the street number to his brother, praying that Dean wouldn't ask him any questions. Dean was quiet on the other end of the line. The only sound was his breathing; a slow comforting in and out, the heaviness showing his concern better than words could.

"I'll be right there." Dean said and cut the line. Sam walked to the bus stop and sat down on the bench hunching over as much as he could. His head hurt and even with the sunglasses the lights were too bright. He thought back to the glad splintering and shuddered.

'Just a coincidence. A freak thing. You don't even need to tell anyone about it.' Sam told himself mentally.

* * *

Minutes, hours, days, Sam had no concept of time, Dean roared to a stop in front of Sam. He threw the car into park and stayed inside talking into the phone with a strangled expression on his face. Sam watched him stop talking and listen to whatever the person on the line was saying, then drop his head in a second of resignation before he looked up and straight ahead. Sam made out the words "Yes Sir". Dean was talking to dad and from the look on his face as he hung up he wasn't happy with the result. Sam put his head in his hands and resumed rubbing his throbbing temples.

Dean got out and walked to Sam standing in front of him. He sighed heavily sitting down next to Sam, looking straight ahead at the street. At the people walking around without a care in t he world besides what they were going to wear on their dates or how they were going to pay their credit card bills. The sun was shining brightly and the weather was just warm enough for a normal person to consider playing hookie and going to the beach for the rest of afternoon. They didn't know.

"That was dad." Dean said unnecessarily. Sam nodded still hunched deep in his jacket like he was trying to sink into it and disappear.

"Its not your fault." Dean said barely above a whisper. He knew Sam heard by the way he tensed.

"I thought I could make myself okay and believe that but…." Sam trailed off. He sat up straighter and took off his glasses shutting his eyes against the harsh light that made it hurt more.

"It isn't your fault Sammy. This is just how it is." Dean insisted. "It doesn't just stop hurting. You can move on, fall for someone else, do whatever and it will still hurt."

"If I'd told her. If I'd said something to her about what I did." Sam argued.

"She would have thought you were joking or crazy. Like Cassie." Dean told him.

"I could have brought her with us that night. Then she wouldn't have been alone there." Sam said around the lump in his throat.

"To fight that Constance bitch? Are you crazy?" Dean asked sharply. His vision was trained on a guy about Jack's age holding a dog almost as big as he was on a leash.

"She would have been hurt or killed if you'd done that." Dean said.

"Its easy for you to say these things Dean. You got to forget after awhile. You don't need to relive every moment of your time with mom, cause you don't remember it all." Sam said in a grief stricken voice. His eyes widened and he looked up at Dean, who was frozen like a statue.

'Fuck what did I just say?' Sam thought frantically.

Dean heard the words like a knife cutting into his abdomen and twisting. And he knew how appropriate the comparison was.

"Dean I-" Sam tried. Dean stood and walked away from Sam to the car.

"Lets go." Dean said, disconnected and impassive. Sam jumped to his feet and got in the car before he could drive away without him. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Dean I didn't mean-" Sam started again. Dean cut him off with a cold look.

The rest of the drive passed slowly in the suffocating atmosphere of the Chevy. Sam kept looking at Dean, willing him to look at him and say something, anything.

Dean cut the engine, jumping out of the car before Sam could try another apology. Sam got out slower lagging a few feet behind Dean. When Dean got to the front door of the hostel he turned around to face Sam. Hi face wasn't hard and guarded anymore. Sam recognized this look from the few glimpses he got of it when he told Dean he wanted to leave when the demon was dead, when they thought their dad might be dead and that night in Lawrence when he caught Dean looking out the window haunted by ghosts of yesterday.

"You're wrong Sam. Its worse to forget things." Dean said. He opened the door and walked in leaving Sam to stand alone and absorb what Dean had just told him.

Dean walked up the stairs and into their room throwing his jacket aside. He was grateful to be alone for awhile. He threw himself into the research he'd already gone over before. He knew the name and age of the most probable person to be haunting the lighthouse, hell he even knew where she was buried already. But he needed a distraction and since he had nothing to shoot at this would have to do.

The door opened and closed behind him but he didn't notice. Jack walked toweling off her hair and was surprised to find the room occupied. She was about to turn around when she saw that Dean was staring at a piece of newspaper so hard it would have burst into flames if he had her ability.

"Dean?" She asked edging closer to him. She put the towel down on the side table and reached out to take the newspaper from him. He looked up surprised to see her there. Hesitating, he let go of the paper.

"Is this our ghost?" Jack asked looking at the little article about a camper in the state park dieing seven months before.

"Only death to happen this close." Dean answered.

"And the light could attract a discontented ghost." Jack mused. She put down the paper and walked to her backpack on the bed. She took to semi-cool beers she'd smuggled from t he mini fridge under Rodney's desk and brought them to Dean's side of the room. She used the side table edge to pop the caps off and held one out to him. He took it gratefully downing half the bottle in one swig.

"Well I guess we're going to the cemetery tonight." Jack said.

"Not Sam. Just you and me." Dean said decidedly. He wasn't angry exactly, he was frustrated he couldn't do anything to help his brother. If there was an off switch for t his kind of pain he'd have found it already but t here wasn't and Sam was a wreck.

"Does Sam know that?" Jack asked thinking back to his earlier outburst.

"I don't think he'll be to eager to go into any graveyards any time soon." Dean said running a hand through his short, blonde hair.

"So am I the only one who got any work done today?" Dean asked her finishing off his beer.

"I went back inside and it doesn't look like much B&E takes place in there and Rodney didn't know that the window was easy access." Jack shrugged. It was an hours work tops. And the boys had been gone the better part of the whole day. She spent most of her day prank calling Maddy at work till she finally turned off her cell phone, and marinating in the shower with her sore leg.

The sun was just starting to set when the brothers got back from where ever it was they went.

"I'll tell Sammy." She said.

Jack thought about asking what went on while she was gone but decided against it. If it was something Dean or Sam wanted to talk about with her they knew where she was. Dean nodded at her and gave a lopsided smile. He nodded at the beer, _Thank You_, shrugged back into his jacket and started going through his pack for the salt and matches.

Jack didn't have to look far to find Sam. He was sitting on the back step of the building looking out in the direction of the water. He looked furtive and guilty.

'This boy broods like no one I ever met.' Jack thought sardonically. She stood in front of him blocking the view for him, hoping to annoy him out of his funk.

"We're goin a grave digging. Deano says you should hold down the fort. You know in case the British attack or something." Jack joked with a drawl. Sam tried to smile but it wasn't happening. Gets an A for effort, Jack thought.

"You went to see her?" Jack asked carefully. Sam jerked up to look into her face, half silhouetted by the setting sun behind her.

"How did you know?" Sam asked.

"I figured it out." Jack shrugged.

"What are you Sherlock Holmes now?" Sam asked weakly.

"No I think I'm more like Irene Adler." Jack said enjoying the momentary widening of his eyes. "I even have an I.d. that says that's my name."

"Stop looking do shocked. I may not be book smart, College Boy but I can read." Jack teased. The conversation lapsed then and Jack was just about to give up and walk away when Sam spoke up again.

"Remember what you said about being backed into a corner?" Sam asked not meeting Jack's eyes. She studied Sam and nodded then realized he wasn't looking at her.

"Yeah." Jack said.

"I get that. I really do." Sam said pushing off the step and walking away.

"Its a bad habit. Think they have a patch for it." Jack said catching up with him.

"I said it was easier for him because he didn't remember mom." Sam said cutting through the fake lightness Jack was trying to use to get a smile from him. Jack grimaced. Sam walked inside before she could tell him anything.

She went to the car to wait for Dean, afraid of losing her patience with Sam. She got it, they all did. It was a tough time and there wasn't any getting better at dealing with it. He wasn't the only one who'd been sucker punched by life. He did however need to learn some things; Like that just because his life was torn to shreds a shorter time didn't mean that his pain was any more pronounced than anyone else's. She thought he knew that to a degree. But pain can shorten a memory.

Dean opened the drivers side door pulling her out of her thoughts. She fastened her seat belt and reached for the radio as soon as the he started the car.

"Its a lot worse not remembering certain things." Jack said before turning the volume up loud, filling the car with Metallica. Dean had never been so grateful for the noise.

**TBC………**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: Nope nope. I don't own anything.**

Jack grabbed the handle of the shovel and hefted it over shoulder. She followed carefully behind Dean so he couldn't get a good view of her pronounced limp. About halfway to the plot they needed Dean looked to his side to say something to Jack but found an empty space. He looked behind him at her trailing behind. She never walked behind him.

"What's going on Jack?" Dean demanded stopping between a row of graves.

"What do you mean?" She squeaked lamely.

"Are you tired or something?" Dean asked narrowing his eyes at her. Now that he thought about she'd been lagging behind him and Sam all day.

"Maybe I was just enjoying t he view." Jack said with a leering grin.

"Jack." Dean said with that warning tone that meant he was going to throttle her if she didn't cut it out and give it to him straight.

"Its on big deal. My legs being a bitch." Jack shrugged.

"Why the hell didn't you say something? How long has it been hurting you?" Dean demanded putting down his tools. He approached her but unlike Sam who gave her time to protest Dean just grabbed her by the hand and forced her to sit down on a headstone.

"I said it was no big deal. Geez, you're as bad as Sam." Jack said squirming out of Dean's grasp and sliding over the other side of the stone.

"Sam knew." Dean said annoyed.

"Yeah." Jack said edging away to put another headstone between her and him.

"Do you really think you can get away like that?" Dean said in a bored tone. He smirked arrogantly.

"I'm sure I can outrun when you're a hundred percent but with a bum leg." He said.

"Hey Golden Boy don't even When I'm in tip top shape I can beat you're ass and still have time for a victory dance before you catch up." Jack said.

"Let me see your leg Jack." Dean said with a deceptive calm. He was stalking around the area, circling her. He was smiling in triumph like he'd caught her already.

"Don't you think we should get to work." Jack said tensing. She'd dropped her shovel and was balancing on the balls of her feet for when Dean decided to make his move.

"Plenty of time." Dean said. He stilled and so did she. Dean broke out in a predatory smile and darted forward. Jack tried to slide to the right but he caught her arm in a grip like a vice.

"Lemmego." She said struggling against him.

"That'll work. Now say pretty please." Dean said sarcastically. "Stop movin' or I'll get the tranq gun from the trunk."

Jack stilled reluctantly but he wasn't taking any chances. He kept his arms around her waist walking her back to her gravestone seat. She let her legs give under her dropping like dead weight and throwing Dean off balance. E fell forward with her and she rolled over so she was sitting on his chest.

"What the hell!" Dean exclaimed in bewilderment. One minute he was in charge and the next he was sitting ass end down in the dirt.

"Yeah I rule!" Jack sang standing up. She put too much weight on her bad leg though and stumbled.

"Pain in the ass." Dean ground out jumping to his feet catching her before she fell down.

"Ow." Jack winced sitting down.

"Look," Dean ran his hand over his face and considered her. "Lets get this shit done and get back. Then I'll look at your damn leg whether you like it or not."

"Does this mean I don't have to dig?" Jack asked smiling innocently. Dean glared at her and tossed her the shovel she dropped.

"Its fine remember?" He said parroting her previous words. He turned away grinning.

"Hey didn't anyone ever tell you to be nice to the handicapped." Jack called after him as she limped to catch up.

"Your not handicapped just stupid." Dean said.

"That's a handicap too. You should know that better than anyone." Jack retorted.

"Whatever Limpy." Dean said.

"Isn't that what your last date called you? I don't recall." Jack ducked the hand that swatted at her, laughingly dancing away from Dean.

They got to the grave of Donna Mills, a twenty five year old girl who'd gone camping in the state park a few miles from Pigeon Point, wandered away from the sight and ended up having an accident. It was the only death in t he past year that close and it fit the timeline of when the haunting started.

"Yoink." Dean plucked the shovel out of Jack's hands and gestured for her to sit down.

"I thought I had to help." Jack reminded him. He flashed a smiled and plunged the shovel into the dirt.

"I can be a gentleman." Dean said. Jack snorted and he threw a handful of dirt at her.

"Real gentlemanly." Jack grumbled brushing the dirt out of her hair.

Since he was working solo it took Dean longer to dig to the grave in question.

"Crow bar." He said holding out his hand to Jack. Unlike in Buffy real graves consisted of six feet of dirt and then a giant concrete vault that housed the coffin itself. Instead if handing Dean the tool she pulled off her jacket, brought out two crowbars and lowered herself into the hole beside him.

"I'm not made if glass." She said when he opened his mouth to protest. Dean held out his hand and Jack gave him his bar grinning triumphantly.

"On three." Dean said as they positioned the crowbars. "Three."

They pushed down hard wrenching it off and worked to slide the stone slab over. It fell over the side with a heavy _thud. _The gleaming mahogany coffin shone in the moonlight.

"So do we open it or…?" Jack asked trailing off.

"Yup, we open it up, salt her up and burn the remains." Dean said reaching for the latch on the coffin. "You should probably cover your mouth up." Dean advised putting his own t-shirt over his mouth. Jack nodded and put her nose to her long sleeve. Dean opened the coffin up and her eyes watered from the stench that made its way past the flimsy cloth barrier.

"Dude." She said looking down at the body. It was mostly still in tact, rotting from the inside out first.

"Yeah, get the salt woulda?" Dean asked.

"What did she die of anyway?" Jack asked tossing the salt to him from the lip of the hole. Dean spread a generous helping of salt over the corpse and climbed out before answering.

"Asthma attack, the paper said. She got lost wandering away from the campsite and had an attack. She didn't have her meds so she died." Dean told her. He brought out his shotgun pumping it in case the ghost decided it didn't want to be gotten rid of and made a surprise appearance.

"Matches." He said to jack. She snorted at him and turned to the hole with a look of concentration on her face. He watched as her lips pursed together and her pupils dilated a little. Fire blazed through coffin instantly.

"Cool trick." Dean said nodding with approval. He'd gotten used to Jack's pyrokinesis by then, it was another weapon in the arsenal as far as he was concerned.

"Wonder if Sammy will be able to use his shining that easily one d ay." Dean said to himself.

"Its like a muscle. Its hurts to work it hard and when you're starting out but after awhile you get used to it." Jack said.

"You get used to it? The pain doesn't go away?" Dean asked frowning, his voice laced with subtle concern.

"Not so much. But its easier if you just ride it." Jack said thinking about how hard it was in the beginning for her. She was five when her ability showed itself.

"So it hurts when you use it?" Dean inquired.

"Its just uncomfortable sometimes. Unless I use a lot of fire then it hurts like a son of a bitch. For small stuff its more dizziness and gnawing hunger afterward." Jack explained.

"Sometimes?" Dean asked.

"Damn you got a lot of questions." Jack said with a smile to take the edge off her words. She knew what he wanted to know was for Sam's sake.

"Other times it feels natural like breathing." Jack said. "Its hard to predict like anything else. Its like a gun you aren't really sure will kick like a mule or work smoothly."

Dean nodded absorbing this.

"Do you hate it." Dean asked.

"Nope." Jack said without a second thought. "Can't hate your arm or leg can you."

Sam paced back and forth slowly as he waited for Jack and Dean to get back. He was eager to get gone before succumbing to grim curiosity about how close he could get to _That Place_ before snapping again. He looked out the window of the room glancing at the lighthouse. After they left his migraine got worse and he had to dose himself. He'd woken up ten minutes ago.

His phone rang startling him and he jumped for it rubbing the last bits of sleep from his eyes.

"Sammy, how ya feelin?" Dean asked.

"Fine. Are you on your way?" Sam asked.

"Yeah. Took awhile cause Jack couldn't dig." Dean told him casually.

"What? Why?" Sam asked.

"Leg. Why didn't you tell me it was bugging her?" Dean asked, his tone turning serious.

"She wouldn't let me check it out. Then we weren't talking…" Sam trailed off with his excuses. Neither were sufficient.

"The silent treatment is your excuse? You're such a girl." Dean said but with a teasing edge to his voice.

"Alright, well we're coming now." Dean said. "After we chain Jack down-"

"I always knew you wanted me." He heard Jack's voice cut in.

"Shut up." Dean said.

"After we check that leg I wanna go over the lighthouse again just in case." Dean said.

"Sure." Sam said.

"Then we can get the hell outa dodge" Dean said and Sam exhaled with relief. With any luck and the breaking of several speed limits they could be out of California by morning.

"Dean." Sam said.

"Yeah."

"About what I said. I was mad and I-" Sam tried.

"Hey its fine." Dean interrupted him.

"No its not." Sam stated.

"No chick flick moments Sammy." Dean said.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

They disconnected and twenty minutes later the car pulled up in front of the house. Sam was waiting outside for them.

"You guys suck." Jack accused when Sam opened her door and pulled her out of the car.

"Don't be such a wimp, we're not gonna bite." Sam said rolling his eyes as he and Dean hustled her inside.

"How'd you know I was into that?" Jack asked pretending to be shocked. "Have you been popping into my fantasies again Sam? You don't catch the one with you and the cattle prod did you? Cause that could make things awkward between us."

"Do you ever shut up?" Sam asked.

"Depends on my motivation. Right now? No " Jack said trying to worm her way away from him. But Dean was right there to push her back in front of them.

"Hey is everything alright?" Rodney asked from the front desk seeing their odd formation.

"Just your average run of the mill three-way." Jack said. Sam turned bright red and was about to stop and protest but Dean, rolling his eyes at Jack's antics, pushed him along ignoring the other guy.

"Sit." Dean commanded.

"Stay. Roll over. Those come next right?" Jack said sitting on her bed crossing her arms over her chest. Dean got out the kit and pulled an Ace bandage and some salve out.

"Roll up your pant leg." Sam said sitting on the edge of the bed. Jack opened her mouth to make a smartass comment but Sam cut her off with a look.

"Just do it." Sam said.

Jack mumbled under her breath as she reached for t he pant leg of her cargo pants. They were loose and rolled up to her knee easily. She looked at a fixed point on the wall with her jaw set tight. She didn't to look down, she had the scars memorized. Two inches below her knee in a gruesome half circle the jagged scar tissue puckered and knotted where her bone had ripped through tender flesh. Neater surgical scars ran vertical on either side of the first scar.

Sam frowned at the sight of the scars. He didn't remember seeing it before, he never thought about it. Scars were an everyday occurrences for the Winchesters.

"You didn't anyone to see them?" Sam asked gently.

"I have scars all over my body Sam. I'm not self conscious." Jack said mechanically.

"Where does it hurt?" Dean asked sitting down on the other side of the bed. He glanced at the scars briefly and opened the small bottle of salve.

"Here and here" Jack answered in the same way she answered Sam still without breaking eye contact with the wall. She ran her hands along her sides of her shin.

"Probably tore some more muscle." Dean said glad the pain wasn't close to the pins.

"Why do you hate this one?" Sam asked.

"What?" Jack asked through her teeth.

"You don't care about t he others but you care about this one. Why?" Sam pressed on.

Jack didn't answer and flinched away when Dean tried to rub the salve into her shin.

"Its this herbal stuff Missouri gave me. She said it'll help with pain and for once her stiff doesn't smell like fungus." Dean placated. Jack looked away from the wall to him. She cleared her throat and extended her leg for him. She still stiffened when t he cold cream touched her skin but she didn't pull away this time.

"I almost killed you." It was barely a whisper. Sam thought he'd imagined it but he knew it was real when Dean froze and looked at Jack. She was studying the bedspread, her face completely impassive.

"Come again?" Dean said.

Jack tried to collect her thoughts, her feelings associated with those particular scars, the ones form her collision with the asphalt. Sam was right, she didn't care very much about the rest of her scars, they just were. Even the gunshot wound to her shoulder didn't carry much sense memory for her. But her leg and that tough stretch of skin at the base of her skull were a reminder of her own stupidity. She still thought she was right to try and leave but the after; getting caught up in a trap of her own making was unforgivable.

"If Dean hadn't taken you from the room and broken the link I could've died and taken you with me." Jack said. She bit the inside of her mouth.

"Jack-" Sam didn't know what to say. He was shocked to say the least. They didn't talk about that episode, it was an unspoken rule. He had no idea she felt responsible for what happened when he entered her mind.

"I chose to go in and get you out." Sam said.

"You wouldn't have had to if I hadn't let it happen." Jack argued stubbornly. Sam looked at Dean who shrugged at a loss for what to say. Sam looked up and ran a tired hand over his face.

"I think you have an overdeveloped sense of responsibility." Sam told her forcing her to meet his eyes. Dean snorted and Sam glanced at him. Dean was smirking at him. _You should talk, _his expression said.

"You really think Dean would have let me do that if he thought I would die?" Sam asked. Jack looked doubtful

"The man wouldn't let me cross the street alone till I was 14. 14 Jack." Sam said.

"Seriously?" Jack raised an eyebrow at Dean.

"It was dangerous and he was a clumsy bastard back then." Dean said defensively.

"You have issues." Jack said nodding slowly. She noticed then that her pain had started to abate.

"Hmm. That's good stuff." Jack said. Dean made an obvious sound in his throat and started to wrap her leg

"Is that necessary?" Jack asked.

"Shut up. You c an say you pulled something during your little 'three-way'" Dean scoffed. Sam glanced at his watch and saw that it was getting late.

"Are we going to check the lighthouse again?" Sam asked hopping to his feet.

"You stay. We check." Dean told Jack as she pulled her pant leg down.

"No way." Jack said making to stand. She heard a click and felt cold metal against her hand.

"You better not have done what I think you just did Sam?" Jack said before looking down at her hand. Sure enough when she wasn't looking Sam had cuffed her hand to a slat on the headboard.

"I was joking about the cuffs Sam." Jack said ignoring Dean ask he fought not to laugh at her.

"Oops." Sam said backing away as Jack tried to swing at him.

"Hold one I gotta get a picture of this." Dean laughed taking his cell phone out.

"Don't you dare." Jack ground out. Dean position the phone to take the picture.

"You are so going to pay for that." Jack called after them as they walked out of the room laughing at her. She looked around her in resignation.

"I've really gotta start carrying paper clips with me."

**TBC……….**

**AN: I gave Jack-Jack one of Dean's lines from the show :D. Needed a slight break from the SamAngstathon that this story has become. Story is still a ways from being finished. Reviews are like candy, except I can take them from strangers, or something like that.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: Nope nope. I don't own anything.**

Dean and Sam walked casually into the lighthouse, they still had the key, so they could come and go as they pleased.

"You know this would be a great place to get laid." Dean said conversationally going over the stairway with the EMF. SO far it wasn't humming.

"What?" Sam asked looking at his brother.

"You know, you bring a girl up here, show her the view and that's the in." Dean said smiling wistfully at the thought. If he could talk his brother into staying for one more night, maybe on the pretext that Jack needed to rest her leg, he could test his theory on something pretty from a bar. He needed to hustle up some cash before leaving anyway.

"Think with your upstairs brain Dean." Sam said rolling his eyes. They made it to the top with nothing showing up on the radar. Dean looked over his shoulder at Sam as he pushed the door to the light room open.

"You know Sammy-" Dean didn't get to finish what he was going to say because a gust of biting cold wind knocked into him as soon as he put one foot over the threshold. He was slammed backward and over the railing.

"Dean!" Sam ran to catch his brother's hand just as he went over the side. Dean hung unconscious one slip away from being a stain on the cement below.

"Dean wake up!" Sam yelled pulling Dean up with both hands. He struggled with Dean's dead weight. He heard a high pitched crack behind him and the cold was spreading to the landing.

He finally managed to hoist Dean up over the railing just as he was coming to. He pulled Dean with him down the stairs with the all encompassing cold right on their heels.

"Sam?" Dean said groggily as he was pulled.

"Dean we were wrong. Its still there and its stronger now." Sam said as he hit the ground floor landing.

"No that's not right." Dean argued. Sam rolled his eyes, even half conscious Dean couldn't admit to being wrong.

"Well how do you explain that." Sam stopped and turned Dean to the frost spreading over the lighthouse stairs. Dean's eyes widened.

"We gotta get out of here." Dean said pushing off Sam. He swiped his busted EMF from where it landed on its trip down. Just as he and Sam were about to break for the door a dark person shaped outline appeared on the steps.

"Dean." Sam grabbed Dean from behind pulling him out the door just as it reached out for him. Dean had been stuck in place, an unheard of lapse.

"Dean what the hell happened in there?" Sam demanded when t hey were safely outside and the thing didn't follow them out.

"It wasn't the girl." Dean said to himself furrowing his brows in confusion.

"That's what I said." Sam said a little too loudly. Dean snapped out of it and looked at Sam for the first time.

"C'mon this isn't making sense." Dean said heading towards the hostel.

"Dean what's going on?" Sam demanded following him inside. He looked out the window at the lighthouse. All the windows were frosted over and he could feel the anger, the malice emanating from it.

"It wasn't like that this afternoon." He thought out loud.

"Yeah something's changed and I think we changed it." Dean groused.

Dean walked to their room with Sam in tow. Jack looked up with a look of worry in her eyes.

"I felt something. What happened?" She asked them. Her throat was tight with anxiety, she usually didn't feel things that had nothing to do with fire, unless they were bad and powerful.

"You guys burnt the wrong corpse." Sam said.

"I don't know about that." Dean said pulling one of the newspapers they'd collected from the trash basket.

He scanned the local headlines till he found the one he wanted. He saw the picture and it confirmed what he'd seen with his own eyes.

"It was George in there just now." Dean said holding up the picture for them to see.

"The jumper?" Jack asked trying to get up and forgetting she was still cuffed to the bed. And not in the good way, she thought as she was jerked back onto the mattress.

"Sam." She said sharply pointing to her wrist. Sam made an apologetic sound and took the key from his pocket.

"It was him and he was pissed." Dean said. He could feel the icy rage around the man as he stepped forward towards Dean, glaring fiercely at him before Sam pulled him out of the room.

"But he didn't die until months after the sightings started." Sam said.

"His death doesn't fit the timeline." Jack added taking t he newspaper from his hand to look at a picture of the college aged guy smiling for a school picture.

"I saw him, clear as either of you." Dean insisted.

"Okay, so what now? It says in the paper that his parents had his body shipped to Washington to be buried in the family plot. We can't just leave it like that." Sam said pointing out the window at the lighthouse. Jack saw it for the first time and whistled low.

"He's an angry fucker isn't he?" She said aloud.

"Why the power boost? Why now?" Dean wondered pacing over to the table where their dad's journal was set down. He flipped through the pages searching for something.

"Damn. That means we vandalized that girl's grave for nothing then." Jack said coming to sit in the chair next to his at the table.

"Humph." Dean made a sound reading through a particular page.

"Come again?" Sam asked taking the third chair at the table.

"What if there was more than one ghost?" Dean asked looking at each of them.

"We didn't see two ghosts we saw one Dean." Sam reminded him.

"Yeah but one the things that convinced me it was Donna Mills was the handprint we found. It was smaller like a woman or a kid." Dean told him.

They thought about this. It was true the handprint Jack found with the U.V. was closer to the size of her hand than either of them.

"They did say the angry shit started after George died in there.." Jack frowned feeling like she was missing something. She wasn't buying that George offed himself, something about that scenario just didn't sit right with her.

"Maybe he'd mad that he's alone there now." Sam suggested.

"Naw, the malevolent sightings started immediately. He's always been mad he just hasn't been able to do much about it till now." Dean answered shaking his head.

"Dean. Remember the poltergeist in our old house?" Sam asked having an idea about what might be going on.

"You think I'd forget?" Dean spat out, harsher than he meant to.

"What happened there?" Jack asked before Sam could get defensive.

"The fire attracted an evil spirit and it started tormenting the family that bought it but it couldn't do any real harm because-" Sam paused.

"Because our mother wouldn't let him. She-she destroyed herself getting rid of him when he attacked me and Dean." Sam finished.

"Oh." Jack said.

"Donna was stopping him from hurting anyone and when we got rid of her he took over." Dean said closing the journal.

"Makes sense." Sam said quietly.

"Okay then we'll just purify the place. I don't feel like driving up to Washington." Dean said.

"Tomorrow's Halloween." Jack said.

"Yeah so?" Dean said.

"It'll be stronger then, especially at night and we don't have what it'll take to purify the lighthouse." Jack informed him.

"And we can't use the same spell we used on our house because the walls are solid, there's no punching through and leaving stuff behind here." Sam said.

"You know any spells we can use for something like this?" Dean asked Jack.

"I know something. But we'll need to do some shopping for the supplies I'll need to work it." Jack said tugging on a strand of her hair.

"Its past ten. All the occult stores in the area are close right now." Sam told them.

"How do you know?" Dean asked him. Sam looked sheepish.

"You don't think I didn't take precautions while I was at Stanford do you?" Sam asked.

"That's m'boy." Dean said proudly. Then to Jack, "We'll make the rounds first thing tomorrow morning. Till then you and Sammy stay here and make sure no stupid locals decide to sneak into the lighthouse."

"Where are you going?" Sam asked him a s he pulled his jacket on and headed for the door.

"I'm gonna get us some cash." Dean grinned thinking back to his earlier thoughts. He was getting half his wish, they were sticking around for another night and he was going to hustle pool at as many bars as he could hit that night.

"I hate Halloween." Sam stated as he fell back into his chair when Dean was gone.

"Really? I loved it as a kid." Jack said.

"Do you still love it?" Sam asked her.

"Yeah. Instead of free candy I get to shoot things. And that's always fun." Jack answered with a smirk.

"Plus I can dress up like a dominatrix without getting arrested." She added.

"Dominatrix?" Sam asked in amusement.

"You should see my riding crop Sammy." Jack teased seductively.

"Do I really have to tell you to think with your upstairs brain too?" Sam asked.

"Your assuming I have one." Jack said biting back a laugh.

TBC………..

AN: Aw angst. Its so pretty. Next chapter is all about prep work and having to reluctantly help hand out candy to kids on a sugar high. Till then 'blows kisses'


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: Y'all know the drill. Insert joke here**

Dean sunk the 8 ball in the corner pocket t a chorus of disappointed groans. He grinned, scooped up the hundred dollars worth of twenties from the two guys trying to tag team him and downed the rest of his drink.

"Hi, I'm Laura." A husky female voice said behind him. He turned to see a dark haired beauty giving him the once over, a beer in one hand and a pool cue in the other.

"Believe darling, I'd love to but I got a pouty brunette at home waiting for me." Dean said with a groan as she leaned in close. Of course he failed to mention that said pouty brunette was his baby brother and that he was just waiting up to give him a lecture about hustling pool and his alcohol consumption. Where did he go wrong with that boy.

"Well, I'll be over there in case you change your mind-" She hesitated giving him an opening to give his name.

"Dean." He supplied.

"Dean." She purred his name before walking away.

'Damn ghosts.' He thought as he fought with himself to walk out the door with his pocket full of bills.

He really did have to head back, he didn't doubt he was in the proverbial doghouse for making Sam and Jack baby-sit the lighthouse. It was edging on 3 am. He'd been to four bars and collected $300.00. Enough to go through Jack's shopping list and get a decent place to sleep in between gigs.

Sam sat on the counter of the kitchen working on his fourth cup of coffee. He wouldn't go to sleep. Even if he felt like a zombie(he did), he would not go to sleep. He felt suddenly that he wasn't alone.

"Sammy?" Jack squinted groggily at him in the dim light.

"Couldn't sleep." He said with a sip to his cup. Another pot was already brewing for him.

"Couldn't?" Jack asked eyeing his coffee. She walked further into the room, shuffling still half asleep. She hopped up on the counter next to him.

"Penny for your thoughts?" She said.

"You don't have a penny." Sam told her.

"I'll give you an I.O.U." Jack responded.

Sam looked at the brown liquid sticking to the bottom of his near empty cup. He had the wild impulse to tell her about the crack, she knew more about this psychic shit than him and she had been hinting to his need to learn more about the telekinesis.

"Jack-" He started and stopped. She looked at him patiently. He grabbed for something to ask instead. The other as still too raw.

"Do you believe in something…more?" He asked. Jack looked contemplative for a second. Sam continued, "Dean's a skeptic and I guess I am too, but what about you?"

"I hope for something for the good ones that don't make it." Jack stated uncharacteristically serious. "But you know given what we see everyday its tough. Its hard to have faith in anything but the gun in your pocket and the guy watching your back, you know?" Jack smiled sleepily at him.

"Yeah." Sam nodded. Jack pushed off the counter.

"Get some sleep, Sam. It'll be okay again. You'll get through this." Jack said putting a hand on his shoulder and squeezing softly.

"How did you do it?" He asked when she got to the doorway.

"I killed the things that killed him and then I ran for my life. Its harder to think about how alone you are when you've got to survive. Oh and I followed a strict regimen of drinking and ensuring my place among the Royally Fucked Up." Jack said lightly but with a serious undertone. Pain and a sadness he could recognize flew across her face before they vanished.

"Night, Sam." Jack walked back to the room. She got to her bed and sat feeling her face heat up. 'Soldiers don't cry.' She told herself. She bit the inside of her lip, she wished she had something else to say to Sam but it true, what she said. She picked up her trusty backpack and hugged it her body, letting herself drift off to a fitful sleep.

Sam empties the rest of his cup out and turned off the coffee machine. He was about to leave the kitchen when Dean came in on silent feet. He grinned at Sam and held up a handful of twenties and fifties. Sam shook his head laughing softly.

"Its a tough job but somebody's gotta do it." Dean said clapping him on the back.

"You alright little brother?" Dean asked.

"I'm tired." Sam said looking into Dean's eyes. Dean nodded in understanding all teasing gone.

"You look like shit." He said with a small smile.

"Thanks, thanks a lot." Sam said scratching his eyebrow.

"C'mon." Dean said.

"I'm kinda wired too." Sam said sheepishly looking over his shoulder at the empty coffee cups in the sink.

Dean followed his gaze and raised an eyebrow at Sam in a clear _You're an idiot_ look.

"I'm waking your bitch ass up first." Dean growled pushing him out the kitchen doors.

"No nightmares. No nightmares. You'll sleep fine." Sam started mumbling under his breath as they walked into the room.

Dean watched his younger brother worriedly. It was obvious he hadn't slept in days and he wasn't eating right either. He was pale and disheveled and if Dean didn't know the words by heart he would think that maybe Sam was cracking up, but those words helped him get up the courage to fall asleep. Dean slid a glance at Jack, he always had to know where either of them were. She was fast asleep with her backpack held loosely in her arms. Another show of grief, another manic gesture of security.

It was almost down when Sam finally fell asleep. And Dean who'd kept an ear open through out the night as Sam shifted and fidgeted finally let himself relax when Sam's breathing evened out.

"You want us to what?" Jack looked at Rodney like she was going to fry him on the spot. Poor guy didn't know that when it came to her, looks really could kill. She was blocking his view of the room so Sam and Dean could continue making up the satchels for the ritual while she questioned the clerks sanity.

"It'll just be for a few minutes. The thing is with the lighthouse the way it is most of the staff took one look at it and drove back home." Rodney squeaked. His eyes were darting all around him and he was shaking like he was going to cut and run at the drop of a dime.

"So you want us to hand out candy to trick or treaters." Jack said.

"Only until six then the place is closing up for the night." Rodney said hurriedly.

"You realize now I'm going to stealing the towels, pillows and anything else I can fit, right?" Jack said lazily.

"Yeah." Rodney said with a look of relief. Of course he was relieved, he got to leave now.

"And I'm drinking the rest of your beer." Jack called out as the man hurried down the hall making his escape.

"I thought you loved Halloween." Sam yawned as she stomped back to the table where they were working.

"I don't kids on the property while George's being a pissy bitch." Jack said. "Why couldn't they just put a sign up or something?"

"Owner is an ass." Dean said popping a jagged piece of Tiger's Eye into his pouch.

"What's the game plan?" Sam asked rubbing more sleep from his eyes. Dean hadn't been joking, he woke Sam up first at eight in the morning.

"We bury these in the four corners, North, South, East, West, around the lighthouse, then I take the fifth inside where ghost started his wooey act and put it somewhere. I'm thinking inside the light itself. Then say t he pretty words." Jack explained.

"Not alone. That guy'll be all over you and Sam the second you set foot in that place." Dean said.

"That's cause we taste like chicken." Jack said.

"You taste like psychic." Dean told her.

"How would you know, have you been tasting without me knowing, you perv." Jack snarked.

"We'll be wearing the holy water around our necks and we'll have the guns ready." Sam assured him.

"You're sure this will work?" Dena asked Jack momentarily placated.

"Not in the least. This is all theory." Jack said cheerfully. "But if we all die at least we'll have a cool lighthouse to haunt."

"You have the least reassuring smile of anyone I've ever met." Sam said.

"Trick or treat!" The children chorused holding out their bags to Sam as he answered the door. Their parents stood a few feet back, glancing nervously at the lighthouse trying to figure out if it was just a really good decoration or something else.

Sam had been elected candy giver outer because as Dean said "You look like a big kid anyway."

Sam gave a strained smile to the kids and started dishing out candy without really paying attention to what he was doing.

"Hey she got more than me." A kid dressed like Dracula accused pointing at a little girl dressed like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. Sam blinked at the boy and dropped another handful in his bag. This bought about a chorus of protests from the other kids in t he group till Sam just handed the whole bowl to the tallest kid and shut the door in there faces.

'Happy damn Halloween.' He thought. He checked his watch: 4:30. Still an hour and a half till closing. He shuffled into the kitchen, where they'd started working after the rest of the staff made a break for it.

"You do a great Lurch impression." Dean said through a mouthful of sandwich. He pushed a plate in his direction. Sam picked at his food brooding silently. All the prep work was done. All they had to do was start the ritual, but it couldn't be done till nightfall which was why it was so dangerous for them.

"Sam you have to eat. Your starting to look third world skinny." Dean said in reproach.

"I'm not hungry." Sam said.

"Fine, but if you end up passing out I'm not gonna carry your ass." Dean said pushing the plate closer to Sam.

"I'm fine." Sam said picking up a fry but not eating it. Jack put down her food and moved to stand behind Sam's chair. She put her hand on top of his head and looked gravely at Dean.

"For just ten cents a day Sammy here could have a place to sleep," She started in a serious voice, "New shoes, food and the education he desperately needs."

Dean laughed loudly, slapping the table.

"Can you say no to a face like this?" She said cup his face. Sam pulled away batting her hands away.

"You're an ass." Sam told her trying not to laugh. He munched on his fry rolling his eyes at them.

"Happy?" He asked picking up his sandwich.

"Ecstatic." Dean said.

"Three syllables Dean. You're learning." Sam said.

"Nuh-uh and you can't prove it." Dean said indignantly.

Another knock sounded at the front door but Sam ignored it. Those kids had enough sugar already.

"Got the South done." Jack called using her spade to smooth out the dirt over the hole.

"North's good." Dean called. "What about you Sammy?"

"Got East." Sam called rotating his shoulder. He tossed his spade in the air and caught it.

"Westward ho." Jack said coming round the corner swinging the fourth pouch by its tassel.

"Don't lose that shit." Dean warned kneeling at the west point of the area. He dug a quick hole sprinkling holy water into it for extra protection before Jack dropped the bag into the hole. As soon as the hole was filled and the dirt smoothed over a sense of calm fell over the area. If not for the continued dark presence in the lighthouse itself they would have thought it was done.

"Let's go." Dean said taking out the fifth pouch, Jack held the piece of paper with the words to the ritual in her hand and Sam was at the ready with his gun.

The air got colder the closer the got to the lighthouse and Dean flinched when he grabbed hold of the icy door handle. It opened easily. George would be waiting for them inside. Another flaw in the ritual was that he'd know what they were up to, there wasn't any hiding it.

TBC……….

AN: Angst and violence to come my fellow minions of fandom. LOL . Another chapter either tonight or tomorrow if my luck holds. Cross your fingers for me. Thanks for the perty words of encouragement!


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but my pervy, dark side. Otherwise known as the inspiration for these stories. Enjoy the show……**

Dean swung open the door and drew his gun. The thick atmosphere made it heard to breath as they ascended the staircase but so far they hadn't been ambushed by their guy.

"Why's this dude so pissed?" He heard Jack mumble.

"Don't know don't care." Sam answered.

They made it to the light room with Dean leading the way. He motioned for Jack and Sam to step back before he kicked the door open. He jumped out of the line of fire just as a mass of cold blew out at them, similar to the one from the night before but stronger. According to their plan Jack threw out a small flare of fire down the railing using the psychic energy as a distraction. It almost worked.

"Dumb ghosts." Jack grinned as they ran into the light room.

"Jack!" Sam called out too late. She ran face first into the poltergeist. The form of the man was clear now. Blue lipped and deathly pale, his eyes narrowed in hate as he grabbed the sides of Jack's head with both hands.

Dean fired a shot and the dead man disappeared. Jack dropped to the ground shaking slightly. Sam took the pouch from Dean so he could help Jack up, while he covered his back. Suddenly Sam was slammed forward into the glass, the impact making him drop his gun. He heard someone call for him and a loud slamming. He couldn't focus and then he was being turned around by invisible hands. He opened his eyes and was staring into the cold dead eyes of the dead man. His hands went around Sam's throat choking him as he struggled vainly against the steel grip. The lighthouse was turned on almost blinding him.

Sam's eyes scanned around him looking for Dean but he was nowhere to be found and Jack he spotted knocked out on the ground, the Tiger's Eye a few feet from her. The door to the room was shut tight, he hoped to anything that was listening t hat his brother hadn't taken another nose dive over the railing.

"Why?" Sam gasped out trying to buy some time. His head was starting to swim for insufficient oxygen.

"That bitch." George's breath came out in white puffs, his face was twisting into a grotesque sneer.

"That bitch killed me." He said. Sam felt something slide into his mind and he saw. He saw what happened the night George died. Like Jack thought it was no suicide. It was a tragic accident.

George climbed the stairs two at a time, he'd been drinking but not enough to be full blown drunk. It was a dare, he was going to go inside the lighthouse and turn on the light, which was only used sporadically anymore. If he could figure out how to work the damn thing. Fifteen minutes into it he couldn't stop laughing at himself and wasn't having any luck with the light.

He finally gave up and staggered out of the room, resting against the railing. Maybe I had more than I thought, he thought to himself dizzily. He took out his phone and was about to open it to check the time when he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. George turned slowly gasping. The woman appeared in front of him, not moving, speaking, just standing there. He stumbled backwards, hit the railing and went over the side. He couldn't catch himself in time and plummeted to his death.

"Let go!" Sam heard from far away. Then he was dropping to the ground gasping for air. His eyes focused on Jack standing between him and George. She held the Tiger's Eye she removed from the pouch in one hand to ward him off and Sam's gun in the other. He climbed to his feet, she glanced back at him, her eyes spitting with anger. George was stalking back in forth in choppy movements fazing in and out of sight.

"Jack hand me the gun." Sam said through gritted teeth, she nodded and handed it back to him. A loud gun shot blast sounded and the door was opened by a very pissed off Dean. George disappeared again.

"You guys okay?" Dean called to them.

"Yeah." Sam answered for them.

"Dean shoot out the light." Jack called. He didn't ask any questions, just aimed and fired. He w as slammed into the wall just as the shot left his gun.

"Aw fuck." Dean coughed, the wind knocked out of him.

George turned on Sam as he advanced on him. Sam sent a look to Dean, his eyes flickering to Jack a s she slid stealthily across the room to the shattered sparking light with the crystal and a look of determination. Dean nodded and pulled out his gun shooting near the ghost. Sam did the same seconds later as he whirled on Dean. George looked back and forth between them deciding who to tear into first, not noticing Jack climbing carefully higher to place the pouch inside.

A shard of glass sliced through Jack's arm, the heat searing her flesh. She let go of the ingredients and snatched her arm back stumbled back from the broken light. She missed a foot hold hitting the floor hard. She looks up to see Sam and Dean firing on the poltergeist, each taking turns ducking out of his grasp to keep his attention from the others. The dark handprint around Sam's throat stand out against his pale skin even in the dark. Jack shoved her hand into her pocket and pulled out the paper.

"You're like her. Trying to kill me too." George's breathe freezes the back of Jack's ear. His hand fastened around her wrist twisting it painfully driving her to her knees. Jack grit her teeth and pushed backwards pressing herself flush against George's form. The charms emblazoned on her flesh reacted to the unnatural presence, working to protect their keeper. George's howl echoed through the room and he let go of her. Sam was there in an instant grabbing her and pulling her away just as a large chunk of the bulb shook loose and would have impaled her. He looked at her arm and pulled off his flannel shirt ripping the sleeve for a makeshift bandage. He worked with quick proficiency to bind the wound in the chaos of shuddering glass and dangerous sparks.

Dean took the spell form her hands and stood up. George screamed in rage and made for the hunter who remained unfazed. He started speaking t he words in his hand, a language he didn't know, hoping he didn't fuck it up too much. There was only one shot at this. George's eyes widened and he looked towards the shattered light, where the purifying pouch was starting to glow. He opened his mouth but no sound came out. Everything was shaking, the windows starting to fracture. Sam pulled Jack to her feet and they back away from them.

"Dean! C'mon this things gonna blow." Sam yelled at his brother. Dean's voice screamed the final words hoarsely above the cacophony. He didn't hear Sam's warning.

"Dean!" Sam screamed running back into the eye of the storm to grab his brother. Together they ran across to the doorway where Jack was leaning heavily, holding her injured arm.

Nobody needed to say that they needed to get the fuck out before the place shattered to bits. They ran as fast as they could, helping whenever one of them stumbled till they were on the ground floor. The whole place rang with a high pitched shriek and glass exploded everywhere. Dean felt a shard clip the back of his leg but he ignored the sharp bite of pain and kept running pushing Sam and Jack forward past the circle cast by the ritual. Where the air inside the circle had been heavy making their movements sluggish, the air outside was calm and smooth, allowing them to move and breath with as much ease as they could.

"Just a simple spell huh?" Dean asked looking at Jack. He started brushing broken glass and rubble form his hair.

"Hey, I said in theory." Jack defended trying to catch her breath.

"Lets never do that again." Sam said putting his hand to the stinging sensation in his cheek and coming away with his hand coated in blood.

"Next time we'll follow the bastard's body to tenbucktoo if we have to." Dean said. He fell back on the grass content to lay there for a week. Jack and Sam followed his lead taking seats on the ground. They were all bloody and covered in glass but the lighthouse had grown quiet after the explosion, so they were free to rest up for a minute.

"Yep, I don't think anything else bad is gonna happen tonight." Dean said putting his arms behind his head.

The sprinklers came up out of the ground and turned on, proving him wrong.

"You're not allowed to talk anymore, Jinx." Jack said wiping excess water out of her eyes.

"Thank God." Sam joked.

"Its not broken but you'll need to take it easy Miss Adler." The ER doc said.

"Thanks doc." Jack said.

"You should use crutches until it heels." He continued.

"We have some already thanks." Sam spoke up from the stool he sat on. Dean was in the next bed with the back of his leg being stitched up. With jack's arm, Sam's head and face and Dean's leg they had over a hundred stitches between them, a new record the triage nurse had said.

"Okay well all we're waiting for is your paperwork and you can go." The doctor said good naturedly before walking away to see other patients.

"Don't worry you're too pretty to scar." Jack said seeing Seam run his hand over the ridge of stitches on his cheek. His hand dropped back into his lap.

"Hey lets get going I hate hospitals." Dean said parting the curtain between their beds. He was buckling his belt back up, having just managed to shimmy carefully into his pants.

Jack slid off the bed and hopped halfway to the hall before Sam stopped her and put his shoulder und her arm.

"Hey Jolly Green, that's gonna walking kinda hard." Jack reminded him as her feet dangled awkwardly.

"Shut the hell up or I'll drop you." Sam said.

"Only because you asked so pretty." Jack said sarcastically. She hooked her good leg around his side so she wasn't dangling like a piece of luggage.

"Can't believe you mad me come to the hospital." She grumbled.

"We all needed more stitches than a home job could handle. Stop being such a baby." Dean said even though he protested coming to the ER as much as she did.

"Better not have gotten blood all over my baby." Dean said. After they pried themselves from the ground, trudged in soaking wet and took showers Sam insisted they go to the hospital. Jack couldn't walk and they were all bleeding profusely. Turns out she's sprained her bad knee and needed a small transfusion. Dean needed one as well ("You would be something rare." Sam scowled at her when she informed the ER docs that she was AB-. "Everything about me's rare." Jack replied grinning.)

The hospital was busy enough that nurses didn't stop them from leaving, assuming they had the green light. Dean popped the trunk and pulled out the crutches they'd decided to keep given their track record for injuries. Sam lowered Jack to the ground carefully waiting till she had the crutches situated before letting go completely.

"So back to Pigeon Pointe?" Dean asked them.

"All the stuffs there." Sam pointed out.

"I meant are we staying for the night or do you want to get an early start?" Dean asked. He gave Sam a significant look and Sam understood.

"No lets stay the night. There's something I have to do before we leave anyway." Sam said looking down at the ground.

"Okay." Dean said simply. He got in the Impala and started the car, Metallica blaring loudly through the parking lot. They drove for a few minutes each lost in their own thoughts when Dean decided to speak.

"Mary." Dean said suddenly turning down the music.

"What?" Sam asked in confusion.

"Her name its-its Mary." Dean said. It took a second for Sam to figure out what he was talking about but Jack got it right away.

"You named your car after your mom." She said.

"You did?" Sam asked cocking his head to the side. He remembered now the conversation from days ago at the diner when the first arrived in town.

"Yep." Dean said clearing his throat.

"You never told me that." Sam said.

"Never told anyone that." Dean countered. "I've thought of it as Mary since I was a kid. You know so I wouldn't forget some things, cause…." He trailed of but t he implication of _I couldn't forget her if she was always close to me _was clear.

Sam was looking at his brother, trying to reconcile this new information. There was a lot he still didn't know about what went through Dean's mind, the way he dealt with things, aside from his show of shrugging it all off.

"Why'd you name your bike lice?" Dean asked trying to change the subject. He'd given Sammy his chick flick sharing moment now he wanted the attention elsewhere.

"It was my favorite book as a kid." Jack said fondly. "Alice was a tough kid, smart."

"I don't whether to check if you guys are possessed or try a group hug." Sam joked.

"If you hug me I'll stop this car right now and beat your ass." Dean warned with a smirk.

"And I'll loan him my crutches to do the job right." Jack said.

Sam smiled and reached out to turn t he radio back up drowning out there threats of violence against him.

He thought about what he had planned the next day. He was determined to face his fears and visit Jess, maybe even drive past the apartment, not to go in just to make sure he could. If he could. But he wasn't going to go it alone this time. Sam glanced at Dean tapping out the tune to the song on t he steering wheel, he flashed a smile at Sam when he noticed him looking. Then back to Jack dozing in the backseat and trying not to. No he wasn't going to it alone.

**TBC………**

**AN: Looks like aside from the stores closing up to early this storm isn't going to be doing much damage but I don't want to speak, er type too soon. Actually something good came out of it, in that my older brother got to make an emergency call home form his PT training, because they heard about the hurricane. That's me sharing cause I'm happy to have heard from my bro for the first time in a bit. Anywhore (hehe I love saying that) The Epilogue will be typed tomorrow and then its on to the next adventure. Thanks to everyone for reading and give such great feedback!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: No ownership will be found here.**

**Epilogue**

Sam walked haltingly through the rows of headstones looking back every few feet to see Dean and Jack sitting on the hood of the car, watching him. He was almost there, he could make out the daisies, her favorite flower, that someone had already brought by. Sam was wearing his F.B.I costume, the only suit he owned and was holding stargazer lilies in his hand. Dean hadn't even bitched when he asked for the cash to buy them.

And he was there standing in front of Jess's grave, looking at the little photo of her there. He wasn't surprised to see the plot had a few bouquets of flowers on it, Jessica was well loved by her friends and family. Sam's eyes filled, his throat seemed to close up.

"I'm sorry." He said, the words coming out automatically. He tried constantly not to blame himself he tried to listen to what Dean said but he couldn't help himself. It wanted him and it went through her to hurt him, and he still didn't know why exactly.

"I'm sorry I haven't killed it yet." He choked. Hot tears burned his cheeks he was clenching his hands around the flowers so tightly that he felt a couple of the stems snap. He bent down to put them down on her headstone touching the cool marble reverently.

"I wish- I wish you would come talk to me again. Tell me what to do, cause I'm feeling a little lost here Jess sometimes." Sam said laughing mirthlessly at himself.

"You were right, with you gone I almost crashed and burned." He said. Sam looked over his shoulder at his friends waiting patiently for him. He asked them to hang back, assuring t hem that this was something he had to do by himself. They understood, of course they understood.

"But I have some stubborn bastards who wouldn't let me." He said. "Dean always pulls me back from the edge you know." He'd never say it to his brother and risk being called a girl.

"And I'm figuring Jack out. Starting to understand a little." Sam told her. He wouldn't do something so cheesy as to thank Jess for bringing the girl into their lives because he knew it wasn't divine intervention that kept them together.

"Dad's getting better at keeping us informed that he's still alive too. Even of he isn't here right now." Sam told her things that he never did while she was alive. The truth about himself and his family.

"I love you Jess. I'll always love you." Sam finished rising to his feet. He dusted off his knees standing there letting t he silence envelope him in a sort of calm. It wasn't okay, never would be but he knew he might be able to bear it now.

"She talked to me you know." Jack told Dean as they watched Sam from afar ready to spring up in case he fell apart. Ready to drag him back from emotional monsters just as readily as they would any other kind of monster.

"In that dream you and Sam had. Yeah, Sam told me." Dean said.

"No when I was….sleeping." Jack said. Funny the words she came up with for what happened.

"What did she say? Does Sammy know?" Dean asked in surprise. Jack shook her head.

"That's how I knew she was with Sam when it killed her, because she told me." Jack explained. "She told me I had to wake up, people needed me and all that. He left right before Sam made his appearance."

"Why?" Dean asked.

"I wondered that for awhile too. She said she had to leave but I think I get it now." Jack said biting her lip deep in thought.

"If he saw her there-"

"He might not have wanted to leave too." Dean finished for her. She nodded. Sam was getting to his feet now and standing still as a statue. A light wind ruffled his shaggy hair.

"I think you should tell Sam." Dean said. "It might help him." Jack looked at him considering this and if she would want to know if it was Chris who'd made a guest appearance in Sam's head. She nodded tracking Sam's movements as he started towards them. His face was wet with tears but he didn't look like he was going to come apart at the seams anymore.

Dean met his brother halfway to the car. He put a hand on his shoulder stopping him. He asked silently if Sam was alright. Sam sniffled and nodded. Dan patted him on the arm and grabbed his hand pressing the car keys there. He gave Sam a small smile and walked to the car, getting into the backseat. Sam looked down at the car keys, Dean's version of a hug and a show of how worried he was about Sam, that he as going to let him drive. Why was he getting into the backseat though? Sam wondered. He shrugged it off as Dean wanting to stretch out for a nap or something.

"Sam." Jack said to him with that same question in her eyes. He reached out and mussed her hair. He went around the drivers side and got in turning the key in the ignition just as Jack closed her door.

"I've got something to tell you." Jack said quietly. It was the volume and seriousness of her tone that caught his attention.

"What?" Sam asked surprised by how hoarse he was.

**THE END**

**AN: On first draft I was going to go into their conversation but then I decided to just leave it there, let it be a quiet moment the way it would have to be. Hope you guys like it and I hope you check out the next story in the series. Thanks for the great reviews and for reading my stuff.**


End file.
